A koi fish swims in the water garden in the back yard of Greg Miller’s Cleveland home.
A round hole in a wooden gate gives visitors a view of the water garden.
Blooms of Annabelle hydrangea decorate the water garden.
Water hyacinth, left, are among the many carefully-chosen plants on Miller’s property in Cleveland, Tenn.
Water lily in Victor Pham’s water garden in East Brainerd.
Greg Miller’s screened-in back porch looks out onto the water garden in the back yard of his Cleveland, Tenn., home.
An old pump decorates the water garden.Victor Pham says his family has always enjoyed watching fish. He and wife Julie started their kids off with “goldfish in little bowls like everybody else” before wading into a fish habitat on a larger scale.
Working weekends and whenever he had a few spare hours, he dug a 5-by-3-foot hole in the yard of their East Brainerd home, digging down about 2 feet. He spread a pool liner purchased at Lowe’s across the hole, edged the circumference in stones, filled it with water, then added water lilies and lotus that reminded Julie of their Vietnam homeland. Koi and goldfish were finishing touches to the Pham’s waterscape.
“We had little luck with tanks as we just couldn’t seem to get it right,” says Pham, an industrial engineer at Nissin Brakes of Georgia. “Our fish just seemed to never be as healthy as they could be, and many times would die sooner than we would have liked. Since we’ve built the pond, I can’t remember the last time that has happened.”
Water gardens, also known as aquatic gardens, are manmade water features that can be used to display aquatic plants as well as serve as home to ornamental fish. Knowing the right plants for your water garden can make the difference between a beautifully serene oasis in summer’s heat or a scummy, algae-covered, mosquito-attracting headache for a homeowner.
And they don’t have to put a strain on your budget. The cost of a water garden can range from purchasing a Smartpond 200-gallon DIY kit at Lowe’s for $149, then adding as many plants as you can afford, to elaborate displays such as Greg Miller’s in Cleveland, Tenn., which he has been adding onto for 12 years.